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The Broken Mariner (Legend)
It's an old story. One of the few to have survived from before the Icathi War. Sailors say there once was a pirate, the fiercest sailor to ever grace the seas. Saltwater ran through her veins and the ocean was her lover and her kingdom. It was said that there was no part of the ocean that she did not know. A long forgotten king, some say he was a jilted lover, some say that she robbed him personally at sword point and he couldn't stand the humiliation-- whatever the reason, this king had been pushed beyond reason. He sold his soul in a compact with a powerful demon in order to destroy her and all that she had built. The demon conjured a great storm, 10 foot high waves and gale winds, smashing her fleet into each other, splintering ships and drowning men. Many ships perished, but saltwater ran through her veins, and the ocean was her lover, and no storm would sink her. So the demon cast itself into the Deep and possessed a great leviathan, a hulking beast all writhing tentacles and spines, gaping teeth and barnacle skin. With an earth shattering roar it breached the surface and splintered her ship with a single mighty swipe. But the ocean was her kingdom and she would not be ousted. She leaped as the beast struck, flinging herself onto the razor sharp edges of the barnacle skin so that she could bury her cutlass into the behemoth's eye. The two struggled like that, the mariner's body ravaged by tentacle and spine, but she would not release her grip on her blade. The beast sank into the depths once more, still writhing and bucking, trying to shake the tenacious sailor. For three days, they fought, carried endlessly by the swift currents of the ocean, and still, she held on. And on the third day they arrived at last-- as the mariner knew they must-- at Shotan, the well of despair from which darkness is drawn to and born from. The demon knew entering into that black pit meant demise, and so it fled its host. But as the demon passed through the mariner's flesh, her own soul reached out and grabbed onto the demon's ephemeral flesh. Together these two grappled, before the dark power of Shotan, their hatred feeding the pit as the pit in turn fed them. What emerged from that fight was something new. It was the mariner, but it was more than that....but also in many ways, less. She drew forth her broken corpse and filled it with her essence, then set off, collecting the souls of all of her men that had perished, weaving them into a spectral ship to sail the dark currents of the Deep. The ocean is her's and sailors pray and make sacrifice so that they may have calm waters and good winds-- and gods help any poor fool who provokes her wrath. Its said that all souls that perish at sea are drawn to her to serve among her infernal crew.